Get Ready for the 2016 PBS Online Film Festival

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by Taryn Stewart | Sr. Manager | Digital Programming on

The time is now! PBS Digital seeks member stations to participate in the 2016 PBS Online Film Festival. Now in its fifth year, the festival features diverse and surprising stories that only PBS, its member stations and producing partners can tell.

The festival will take place in Summer 2016. To be considered, stations need to complete this short application here. The application deadline is Monday, February 29, 2016.

Join in on the fun! Last year, Roku® customers were given exclusive early access to the PBS Online Film Festival for one week beginning June 8. From June 15 - July 17, the festival was available via PBS and station digital platforms where viewers were able to vote for their “People’s Choice” favorite film.

The 2015 festival featured short independent films (non-fiction and fiction), presented by these partners – ITVS, StoryCorps, POV, National Black Programming Consortium, World Channel, The Center for Asian American Media, Latinos in Public Broadcasting, Vision Maker Media, and Pacific Islanders in Communications. In addition, the following station partners participated: Alaska Public Media, CET Cincinnati and ThinkTV, KLRU, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), UNC-TV and Vermont PBS.

During the six weeks the films were available for screening, entries were streamed more than 400,000 times, up from 312,000 streams in 2014 over a seven-week period. We are looking forward to an even bigger and better festival in 2016.

You can watch films from past online film festivals on online on pbs.org and station sites, through your favorite PBS streaming device and also on the PBS Channel on YouTube.

Stations can use their participation in the Online Film Festival to build strong relationships with local filmmakers, elevate their presented content to a national level and reach new audiences.